Tonight Show

Written
by
Rob Kinnan
on March 22, 2005 Contributors: Randy Lorentzen, Bernanrd JuchliWith Lots of Help From GM Performance Parts, Jay Leno's New Ride Is a 1,000-Horse Twin-Turbo Toronado-and Get This: It's Rear-Drive

1/11This "before" shot was camped up a bit for fun, though the Toro did spend a season behind Leno's Big Dog Garage. The starting point was actually a pretty clean car.

Walking through Jay Leno's shop leaves you with one resounding thought: "Man, did I ever enter the wrong line of work." Million-dollar Bugattis and Duesenbergs fill one shop, while across the alley and through another unassuming door are two more cavernous rooms holding even more high-dollar four-wheeled cargo, about a hundred bikes, and God knows how many toys, collectibles, oil cans, and other automotive memorabilia. You know it's bad when the cars you don't even pay attention to are two perfect Hemi cars, a '70 Challenger and a '66 Coronet stuck over in the corner. The entertainment industry pays well, indeed. But unlike most other show biz "collectors," Leno actually drives his stuff, hard and often. And he's constantly adding to the mix, with both mainstream and off-the-wall vehicles. The latest project is a little bit of both.

2/11Deep inside Leno's lair rests the '66 Olds, which is working hard to take sleeper honors away from the GM 572-powered Buick built last year and featured in the April '04 HOT ROD.

When's the last time you saw anybody do anything with a '66 Olds Toronado? Funky styling, front-drive layout, and massive heft on the scales leave the Toro on the outside looking in for many hot rodders' attention, but one glance at Leno's finished car makes you wonder why you never looked twice. This thing is just plain cool. Of course now that we want one, this car will boost the cost of clean old Toronados beyond our financial reach.

3/11

Leno's car should be faster than stink too, with a twin-turbo LS6 feeding into a rear-mounted Corvette automatic transaxle. The entire running gear came from a C5 Corvette, and while the technology is neat, we'd rather they'd have figured out how to package it all in a front-drive layout, the main thing that makes the car a Toronado. The mind reels at the thought of 1,000 hp at the front tires, but that would have probably proven too time-consuming, too costly, and too fragile, so the car was converted to rear-drive using as much as possible from a donor C5 Vette. That included the complete front and rear suspension, engine, transaxle, and torque tube.

4/11The twin-turbo Gen IV small-block is the centerpiece of the car. With over 1,000 hp on good gas, the Toronado's heft is no longer an issue.

The car was built at Leno's shop, Big Dog Garage, in Burbank, California, spearheaded by Bernard Juchli and with a huge amount of help from GM Performance Parts. GMPP supplied the donor car and parts and even did some shakedown testing and calibration at its Arizona proving grounds. GM got involved for the obvious press attention (and probably so the PR guys can say they're pals with Jay Leno), but also as an exercise in new product development. For instance, the engine is being developed as a potential crate motor package. It won't come with the turbos, of course, but "all the basic elements of this engine will soon be available in either the GM Performance Parts catalog or elsewhere in the GM parts system," according to GMPP Group Manager (and former HOT ROD staffer) Will Handzel.

5/11The intercooler has two cores, each with its own heat exchanger and built-in fan mounted on either side of the radiator. The coolant tanks are hidden behind the fenders, back by the hood hinges.

The engine is one of the key highlights of the car. Powertrain, Performance Division, and Performance Parts teamed up to build the combination based on LS6 architecture. The block is a prototype Gen IV aluminum case with 4.110-inch bores, and the forged 4.00-inch-stroke crank puts displacement at 425 ci (a tip to the Olds V-8 of the same displacement). The heads are CNC-ported Gen IV picked up from the Cadillac CTS-VR racing program, and the camshaft is a "prototype" (meaning they wouldn't give us the specs) hydraulic roller with factory lifters. Big Dog Garage fabricated the jewel-like headers and plumbing for the pair of turbos. It also fabricated the dual-core intercooler that mounts at the bottom of the engine compartment just behind the radiator. The turbos breathe through a pair of K&N flat filters mounted in a polished aluminum bracket on top of the engine, and exhale into a pair of GM mass-air meters and a factory 90mm throttle-by-wire throttle-body and composite intake manifold. With 19 psi of boost and on VP C16 race gas, the small-block cranked out 1,070 hp at 6,350 rpm and 1,000 lb-ft of torque at 4,750. Those pulls were to make magazine-fun numbers, but it will be detuned to around 700 hp when Leno actually starts to drive it. Of course, we're hoping Jay's manly enough to dump in the good stuff, crank up the wastegates, and put it to the wood in front of NBC's Burbank studios.

As for the looks, the body was restored but thankfully left as Bill Mitchell originally designed it. It also wears a stock-looking color-BASF Trumpet Gold. All the original trim was restored or replaced. The 17-inch billet wheels retain the original design, and their placement in the wheelwells was very carefully set. "The original wheels are kind of stuck in there too far, and they don't look right," says Leno. The new billets are outboard just enough to not get lost in the wheelwells.

6/11Leno's Big Dog Garage fabricated the amazing plumbing for the turbos, including the air-to-water intercooler.

Back to the big question: Of all cars, why a Toronado? Jay's reasoning was, "I've always loved the way these cars look. It was a forward-looking car almost 40 years ago and its style still looks contemporary today. The prominent fender flares are features you see on countless new vehicles, so the car still has a smart, contemporary look when you apply current trends like 17-inch wheels and tires. It's a natural fit."

We agree, 'cause the more we look at it, the more we want one. Jay does know a bitchin' car when he sees one. It's doubtful that we'll get him to take the Toro to the track and let it all hang out (or flip us the keys so we can), but as the latest addition to his collection, it's good to know that the car will actually get driven now and then. It's also nice to know that this car will not get overlooked like those Hemi cars in the corner of the shop.